- The AI training center aims to deploy local training capabilities for assisted driving and AI applications in China.
- Tesla will actively engage in assisted driving initiatives in China, though no specific deployment timeline is currently available.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has put an artificial intelligence (AI) training center into operation in China, the US electric vehicle (EV) maker's vice president Grace Tao said on Friday.
The training center focuses on deploying Tesla's AI capabilities locally for assisted driving and AI applications in China, Tao said, according to a report by local media outlet Cailian.
Tao did not disclose the center's computational power, only noting its capacity meets current needs, the brief report said.
Earlier today, Tao said Tesla would actively engage in assisted driving initiatives in China but could not provide a specific timeline for deployment.
Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told the World Economic Forum in Davos he expected the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance system to gain approval in China by February.
However, China's official China Daily subsequently reported, citing a Chinese government source, that this was inaccurate.
On February 25, 2025, Tesla began rolling out an ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) feature in China similar to the US FSD, though the initial introduction avoided mentioning FSD. This was widely seen as the formal introduction of FSD to China.
The feature's name was later changed from "Full Self-Driving Capability" to "FSD Intelligent Assisted Driving," and then to "Intelligent Assisted Driving."
Over the past several years, Tesla has allowed Chinese customers to purchase the FSD software package for RMB 64,000 ($9,220). However, since FSD was effectively unavailable in China, even Tesla sales representatives did not recommend customers select this feature.
Notably, starting February 14, Tesla will discontinue the one-time payment option for FSD globally, transitioning entirely to a monthly subscription model.
On January 28, Tesla said in its the fourth quarter earnings report that FSD had about 1.1 million paying users, representing about 12% of the company's cumulative vehicle sales.
This marks Tesla's first disclosure of FSD's paying user count.
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